women's equivalent to 2 hour marathon .. apparently already exists. Paula Radcliff's 2:15 is already there.
https://www.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00852.2014The simplest approach to determine the equivalent 2-h marathon time for women is to calculate the time difference (from 2 h) based on the relative sex difference in the WR (∼10%). The current WR performances are 2:02:57 (h:min:s) for men (Dennis Kimetto, 2014) and 2:15:25 for women (Paula Radcliffe, 2003), so that a synonymous time for women is 2:12:00. Several indicators, however, suggest a 12–13% sex difference is more appropriate and that the WR by Radcliffe is essentially the equivalent of a 2-h marathon for women.
this is crazy:
Radcliffe's performances were exceptional. Between 2002 and 2005, she ran the three fastest marathon times ever recorded by a woman, and her WR performance (2003) still stands 12 years on.
great section:
Sex Differences in Physiology: What is Unique about Paula Radcliffe?
Human performance in distance running is strongly related to the maximal oxygen consumption (V̇o2max). However, among elite runners, the better athletes are distinguished by the highest sustainable oxidative metabolic rate (related to the “critical velocity” and the “lactate threshold”) and running economy (18, 19). Critical velocity represents the highest intensity that V̇o2, blood lactate, and intramuscular metabolites such as H+, PCr, and Pi can be stabilized (16). The difference between “critical velocity” and the “lactate threshold” is compressed in elite runners compared with recreational runners (16). There is limited difference, however, between elite men and women runners in the relative V̇o2 they are able to sustain for several hours (∼85–90% V̇o2max) (4, 9, 10, 17). In highly trained men and women, running economy is similar and does not appear to explain sex differences in performance either (2, 4, 9, 21). In general, in equally trained men and women, the sex difference in performance is mostly dictated by men's larger V̇o2max because men have a larger heart size, larger muscle mass, less body fat, greater hemoglobin concentration, and consequently a higher V̇o2max than women (17, 28). Elite male runners usually have a V̇o2max of ∼70–85 ml·kg−1·min−1 and elite females ∼60–75 ml·kg−1·min−1 so the sex difference is 10–14% (2, 7, 15, 18, 25–27). Other factors that potentially affect the sex difference in performance among recreational runners such as substrate utilization (14, 30), muscle fatigability (11), pacing (6), and competitiveness (5), likely have minimal influence among elite distance runners. Whether there are sex differences in the influence of genetic factors that affect elite runners is not known.
There are several aspects of Radcliffe's physiology that explain her extraordinary marathon performances. First, Radcliffe has a superior V̇o2max relative to many of her elite counterparts of ∼70 ml·kg−1·min−1 (15). Second, her lactate threshold occurred at a high fraction of her V̇o2max and at a high absolute running speed (18.5 km/h) and it can be estimated that her critical velocity was very high (19.4 km/h−1) (15). Finally, Radcliffe had exceptional running economy (∼175 ml·kg−1·km−1 compared with the “typical” value of ∼200 ml·kg−1·km−1) that improved ∼15% over many years of training (15). Radcliffe's superior economy and critical velocity allowed her to run at high absolute speeds for extended periods.
